Acer Aspire 6930G-583G review

Acer's Aspire 6930G-583G is a feature-packed media centre laptop that offers great value for money

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Our Verdict

A solid performance and good multimedia capabilities mean this is a true multimedia machine for use around the home

For

Blu-ray drive

Good graphics performance

HDMI and eSATA

Against

Heavy

Average battery life

The Acer Aspire 6930G-583G is aimed at those on a budget looking for an all-in-one multimedia package.

It's packed with features, boasting a fairly powerful graphics card, a Blu-ray drive and a widescreen display with a 16:9 aspect ratio, meaning you can play films without the intrusive black bars commonly seen at the top and bottom of the screen.

Although the bright 16-inch 1366 x 768-pixel screen is perfect for watching DVDs and movies, the Super-TFT coating means reflections in direct sunlight can be distracting. The bulky size and 140-minute battery life also make this a laptop intended predominantly for home use.

The Nvidia GeForce 9300M GS graphics card delivered some impressive results in our 3D benchmarking tests. Consequently, this is a good machine for multimedia activities, such as photo and video editing, and you should be able to play a few games on it.

BENCHMARK MACHINE: Samsung Q45

The 3.2kg chassis is tquite heavy however. It is spacious and constructed from a rugged plastic that proves hard to scratch, but the lid is shiny and attracts both fingerprints and light cosmetic damage. A row of touch-sensitive buttons just below a Dolby Home Theatre speaker allows quick access to applications and volume settings.

While typing is comfortable, there is a slight flex in the keyboard which makes the action feel a little spongy. Due to the large screen, a dedicated number pad has been included, making it easier to enter data into spreadsheets. It also offers enhanced control for games.

Power is provided by an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, and backed by 3072MB of DDR2 memory, it runs smoothly and copes well with running multiple applications simultaneously.

Great connectivity

Connectivity is also comprehensive. An 802.11a/g/n Wi-Fi adapter offers fast internet connections when in range of wireless hotspots, while a wealth of ports – including both VGA and HDMI – offers versatility when connecting the laptop to external analogue and digital monitors.

Four USB ports spread around the chassis makes it easy to connect peripherals, and an eSATA port facilitates quick data transfer to external hard drives if you are looking to back up your data.

The Acer Aspire 6930G-583G provides great functionality, packs in a lot of features and offers excellent value for money. Although battery life isn't great, this is an impressive laptop, and comes highly recommended by us as a price-friendly multimedia platform.